The National Assembly hall on Thursday echoed doubts over claims made by ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif pertaining to the sit-in staged by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in 2014.

Addressing the 56th Parliament session, PTI vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Nawaz claimed he was disqualified because of the treason case against General (retd) Pervez Musharraf yet it was his interior minister [Chaudhry Nisar] who removed former president’s name from the Exit Control List (ECL).

Responding to the allegation that an intelligence chief asked him for resignation, Qureshi asked why the former premier did not take Army chief into confidence over it. “Why did he remain silent until now?”

Responding to Qureshi’s speech, PML-N leader Saad Rafique said: “We restricted Musharraf as much as the democratic system allowed. We are not in favour of anyone’s disqualification, we get no pleasure from it.”

Reiterating Rafique, Daniyal Aziz also crititcised PTI and called Imran and Jahangir Tareen “tax thieves.” “Tareen is a certified robber. They do not even apologise.”

Nawaz’s statement

The deposed prime minister on Wednesday told the accountability court that the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) corruption references against him “are a punishment for going ahead with treason case” against former dictator Musharraf among other things.

While recording his statement under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code, he said the references and the 2014 sit-ins against his government were a punishment for him as he dared to take legal action against the former military ruler despite being warned not to do so.

In yet another startling claim, Sharif said the head of an intelligence agency had given him a message to “either resign or go on a long leave”.

The spy agency head believed that the case against Musharraf could easily be wrapped up once he got out of the way, he said.

“The message caused immense pain. I felt pain thinking what has happened to Pakistan where an elected prime minister has become so worthless that a subordinate to the head of the government is giving [him] message to resign or go on a long leave,” he said, adding that such a terrible situation might not even be prevailing in any Third World country.

“A dictator must be punished because the dictatorships have wounded the existence of Pakistan,” Sharif said, adding that only a handful of the generals ruled the country but “the entire institution has to pay the cost”.